05/06/2020
What is -Forgiveness?
Self-forgiveness is the practice of forgiving yourself of past wrongdoings. It involves changing your perception of yourself and what happened through the eyes of self-compassion and self-understanding. By understanding the deeper mechanics of why you did what you did, and holding yourself in the embrace of self-love, you can let go, move on, and feel free again.
Actions That Make us Feel Guilt and Shame (Examples)
How to forgive yourself
While we can sometimes feel haunted by a thought or intention we’ve secretly carried (once or many times), generally we feel most deeply impacted by what we’ve done.
Here are some examples of actions that cause us guilt and shame:
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Bullying someone
Getting an abortion
Cheating on your partner
Stealing
Physically hurting a loved one
Gossiping and/or spreading rumors
Destroying other’s property
And of course, there are more extreme cases out there that range from molestation to murder. (Clearly, this article isn’t approving such actions, or giving you a get out of jail free card – it’s simply focusing on the other side of the journey: self-forgiveness.)
The Dark Side of Self-Condemnation
Image of a depressed woman struggling to forgive herself
It’s vital to have a certain level of guilt/shame after hurting ourselves or someone else. Without guilt, we would sociopathically ignore the impact of our behavior. (And can you imagine what society would be like if no one felt bad about what they’d done? We’d be living in a non-stop apocalypse.)
But guilt and shame become toxic when they begin to fester within us; when we can’t let go of what we’ve done or move on. Picture a stagnant pool of water – that’s what a lack of self-forgiveness feels like. There is no growth, no movement, no freshness, no life inside, only the same old rancid sludge of self-hating thoughts.
In fact, when we carry toxic guilt and shame, we tend to create a negative and unrealistic image of ourselves in our minds. Such dark self-images sadly tend to create self-fulfilling prophecies or negative feedback loops. In other words, if we carry the negative core belief that we’re a cheating scumbag who doesn’t have an ounce of loyalty within us, we may perpetuate that same behavior in our next relationship.